Human beings are a social animal and a person's face communicates important information to other people. A smile is a very important part of human communication and socialization. A genuine broad smile can help a person fit in and makes others who see the smile comfortable and even happy by seeing someone else's smile.
Teeth are an important part of a person's smile. Unattractive teeth or defects in a person's teeth can detract from the overall appearance of the smile. Dentists have long improved defective teeth with a porcelain overlay to enlarge, straighten, brighten, or fill in breaks or gaps in a person's teeth. A person who has excessively small teeth in part to excessive gums can enlarge the teeth by recontouring the gum line with the removal of some gum tissue in conjunction with a new overlay. People with yellow teeth or dark stains in their teeth can brighten their smile with a brighter whiter porcelain overlay.
As important as a smile is, many people with serious and unsightly defects in their smile decline to have a porcelain overlay to improve the smile for various reasons. One of these reasons is that a person may not be willing to undergo a permanent and irreversible operation unless there is a high assurance in the person's mind that the procedure will greatly enhance one's smile and the overlay will be comfortable in the mouth against one's natural teeth. The person may not have the vision or knowledge as to how such an overlay can improve one's smile. A person may initially resist the incorporation of dental prosthesis by being under the impression that the prosthesis may be uncomfortable in the mouth. Dentists until now had no easy method to demonstrate how such an overlay can improve the smile or to counteract the fears of discomfort. As such, only a limited amount of potential consumers accept and undergo an overlay procedure even though this dental treatment could greatly benefit a vastly wider consumer group.
A patient may not be willing to undergo a permanent dental procedure such as an overlay until he/she is fully assured with the knowledge that the procedure is right for him/her and will produce some dramatic and known result. The patient needs to see the image of his/her own face and smile in a dynamic setting in a more three dimensional demonstration in order to obtain the needed assurance to undergo the permanent porcelain overlay.
Recently, efforts have been made to visually demonstrate to the patient how a porcelain overlay may improve one's smile. One such attempt is to take a photograph of a person smiling and then digitally alter the teeth to produce the desired smile improvement. While the digitization can produce a number of different looks by digitally altering the teeth in a variety of ways, this process is less than optimal. The result produces a somewhat static and two dimensional look to the patient. It also gives no knowledge to the consumer related to the comfort of a porcelain overlay in the mouth.
Attempts have been made to place a temporary molded overlay of an individual tooth on a person's tooth. The overlay may adhere to the natural tooth for a short period of time in order to demonstrate to others the benefits and potential outcome of enhancing one's teeth for a better smile. The temporary molded overlay is made from a temporary moldable putty formed over a model of the desired smile changes. This putty is relined with an acrylic that is cured or glued onto a patient's teeth. A second approach is via direct sculpting composite on the surface of the patient's tooth and curing the composite in place one the desired shape has been sculpted. While these methods can provide the dynamic and three dimensional demonstration needed for the potential dental patient, they are time consuming and costly procedures for fitting a plurality of teeth.
Once a patient decides to undergo cosmetic dentistry and obtain a porcelain overlay, the patient's teeth are prepared to receive the overlay. The overlay is then made using a mold impression of the prepared teeth. The mold contains the impression of the teeth along the tooth plane however, the mold often does not provide adequate information as to the vertical and horizontal inclinations and facial planes with respect to the tooth plane to provide the best location of the outer surface of the overlay. Often, the appearance of the overlay teeth needs to be aligned with a facial plane that is angled with respect to the plane of the natural teeth for the best appearance. Dentists have in the past approximated the best angle by placing a stick, such as a cotton swab, into the registration paste before it has set to indicate the vertical and horizontal planes of the overlay with respect to the tooth plane. This placement was done with no visual representation of human teeth and as such could only provide approximation to the ideal position.
Another obstacle for a patient is the time needed for the preparation of a temporary overlay to be used while the permanent overlay is being manufactured. Often the temporary is made using a wax impression of the patient's original teeth. The teeth are then prepared for the overlay and the temporary is formed in place by using curing material. After the material is cured, it is then trimmed, polished and cemented in place. The problem with this procedure is that the patient remains with a look substantially like original teeth from the wax molding. The patient desires to have the look of the new veneer, while the permanent overlay is being prepared.
Temporary multi-tooth crown shells are known, but have only been applied to cuspid teeth and rearward for example the bicuspids and molars. Until now, there have been no full arched dental temporary that can also incorporate temporary crowns or temporary implants.
What is needed is a pre-fabricated demonstration dental template that can quickly be adhered to patients' teeth to demonstrate the look of a dental overlay for the patient. What is also needed is a dental prosthesis in the form of a dental template that provides the visual and tactile indicator to allow the consumer or patient to make a better educated decision prior to the onset of an aesthetic dental treatment; namely the application of a porcelain overlay. What is also needed is a method of visually demonstrating how a dental prosthesis can improve one's smile. Further, what is needed is a method to use the demonstration template also as a visual indicator to assist in determining the desired vertical and horizontal facial planes. The vertical plane determines how long the tooth should be with respect to the lips and other facial features. The overlay relative to the natural tooth plane can be set in a mold to maintain and be able to communicate information of the desired vertical and horizontal facial planes for the overlay relative to the natural teeth with the laboratory to facilitate ideal end results with respect to facial planes and symmetry.
What is needed is a full arched temporary pre-formed shell including front incisors that can be easily applied to a patient's prepared teeth as a temporary while the permanent overlay is being manufactured. What is also needed is a temporary shell that matches in size, shape and color of the demonstration template that is used on the patient.